Sunflower seeds are tasty. Sunflower seeds you have to shell are annoying. This is true for me, it’s true for you and true for birds, too. Seed eating birds have beaks that are specially adapted to cracking seeds, but even they find getting sunflower seed shells open a bit of a challenge. This particularly holds true for smaller birds like finches.

On the other hand, many, many backyard birds absolutely love sunflower seeds. It’s an ideal high energy wild bird food. Given enough time and determination, birds can get past a seed’s shell, but they usually prefer it when they don’t have to. If you’re feeding wild birds, you’re not just interested in providing nutrition, but in attracting birds to such an extent that they’ll will choose your feeder over other feeding opportunities.

Our Super Sunflower, Superior Seeds and Ultimate Variety blends stand out by providing hulled sunflower kernels in addition to whole seeds. If you add these to your feeder you’re likely to get a wider variety of bird species visiting your yard. Hulled sunflower does have a few drawbacks, however, so we mix whole seeds in with kernels. Shells protect whole seeds from moisture so they can go without spoiling for longer. Hulled sunflower attracts birds easier, but whole sunflower keeps for longer. You can also preserve hulled sunflower for longer by choosing a wild bird feeder that protects seeds from moisture. Suitable feeders from our selection include our Any Weather Bird Feeder and Squirrel Resistant models.

Back in the Cardinal Wild Bird Profile two readers asked similar questions about some irritating cardinal behavior. Diane has a cardinal constantly flying into her windows. Ozzie’s truck is getting some unwelcome attention from a red bird too.

Both behaviors may have a common origin. As I noted in the profile, cardinals are territorial birds. And like virtually every other bird, a cardinal can’t distinguish its reflection from a real bird.

So what happens when a cardinal looks at a reflective surface (like a window or mirror) and sees what it thinks is another cardinal budging into its territory? Well, it gets pretty mad . . . .

To answer both questions then, the issue probably isn’t nearby fruit, but reflections. The male cardinal sees what he thinks is another male who’s probably big enough to give him a hard time (who looks exactly the same size, in fact!) and tries to chase him away. The little red bird flies forward and either hits the window (not too hard, fortunately; cardinals aren’t power fliers) or lets loose some . . . displeasure, leaving you with a bit of a mess.

This article explains the phenomenon in a bit more depth. Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to deal with. First of all, place your feeders some distance away from a reflective surface so that the cardinal doesn’t see a "competitor" when it visits to eat. Next, keep your hedges cleared and your brush trimmed, especially around your car, so that you don’t accidentally put windows and mirrors too close to a prime roosting location. If the behavior presists, see what you can do to reduce or break up the reflection. Cornell University’s All About Birds site has some suggestions — and a nice picture of cardinals at a window!

I hope this answers your questions. Let me know if you have more!

General: Blue Jays are a famous wild bird species with a reputation for mischievousness. They’re part of the Corvidae family and as such, are related to crows and ravens. Did you know that their blue markings are not the result of pigmentation? Instead, the color comes from the way light refracts through the internal structure of their feathers. This so-called structural coloration is common in blue bird feathers. Another distinctive Blue Jay feature is its crest. An agitated Blue jay will ruffle up its crest, but when it feels calm and ready to feed it’ll let it rest flat against the top of its head.

Diet: Blue Jays enjoy a varied diet. They’ll feed from the ground, trees and bushes. Blue Jays will eat almost anything they can get their beaks on, but a diet of seeds and fruit is especially nutritious. Our Ultimate Variety and Dutch’s Deluxe are excellent picks if you want to attract Blue Jays. Super Sunflower provides shelled sunflowers they particularly enjoy due to how easy they are to eat. They’ll come to any feeder that looks like it’s protected from predators. Jays will often store food in their nests against lean times but if you keep a well-stocked bird feeder they prefer to just visit regularly. Even a well-fed Blue Jay will take bigger and harder seeds away to eat in private, but don’t worry — they’ll be back soon. If you don’t want them to go, try bird foods with hulled (shelled) seeds.

Environment: Blue Jays are slow in the air, so they like to fly under light cover to avoid predatory birds. They don’t like thick woods though, and they’ve adapted well to human backyards and parks. The species ranges across a huge territory that extends from Florida to Northern Ontario, Canada.

Behavior: Blue Jays are known for their intelligence and assertiveness. They’ve even been known to harass owls until they move away! In these situations, Jays work together to annoy the predator. They’re playful birds that are attracted to shiny objects; sometimes, they’ll even snatch them from human hands. Blue Jays use a wide variety of calls. Some of them call other Jays to help mob a predator. Others are simple squaks or quiet calls they use to talk to each other. Like other corvids, Blue Jays that spend time around humans can learn specific calls to beg for food — and a few have even been trained to mimic human speech.

Blue Jays are not picky about where they nest. When their mating season starts in mid-March they’ll claim any comfortable, safe place they can find. Blue Jays have a reputation for stealing other birds’ nests, but for the most part they only do this with abandoned ones; only a minority kicks eggs out of a busy nest to take up residence. Blue Jays mate in monogamous pairs; a pair usually stays together for life.